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Heller Poll results: A narrow win for gun control

According to the latest NBC/Survey Monkey poll released yesterday, Americans strongly want tighter gun control laws (61 percent) including a ban on the sale of assault weapons (60 percent.)

Readers of this website: Ehhh, not so much. A narrow majority (53 percent) of the 431 voters taking this week’s Heller Poll agreed with their fellow Americans, answering yes to gun control.

Oddly enough, most of those leaving comments were yes voters, which is the opposite of what usually happens. My favorite was from Sue H., who wrote: “The idiots that let the ban on assault type rifles expire should be bitch-slapped into next year!! We the people are fed UP with the NRA and their whining that they need their guns! Of course you do, and feel free to keep your regular guns and rifles. BUT the assault type weapons should NOT be available to anyone except the military… and we need to make this happen as SOON as possible.”

I love feisty people.

There were a few typical gun nut attempts to shift the discussion by pointing out that the gun used in the Orlando massacre wasn’t an “assault weapon,” in the sense that it’s not fully automatic, meaning you merely hold the trigger and death pours out ceaselessly.

My answer to that nonsense is usually this: “That’s a point without distinction. It’s true we don’t allow full machine guns, but guns like the AR-15 (the gun used in Orlando was actually an MCX somethingorother) still spit bullets as fast as you can twitch your finger, so what’s the difference? Swift, sure death is swift sure death, and we don’t need to let everyone – including terrorists, crooks and the crazy – buy weapons of mass destruction.”

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Bar owners who sell too much liquor to a customer can be charged if that customer then drives a car and injures or kills someone. I think we should consider charging a business owner who sells an assault weapon to someone who then goes out and kills with it. They might scrutinize their customers a lot closer and reconsider selling these weapons.. Just my opinion.

My family is made up of sportsmen who enjoy hunting. I am not advocating taling their guns away from them.

We let people drink and we let people drive, but we don’t let them (legally) drink and drive over 0.08…because it increases the death rate. Government’s first job should be to protect its citizens. In the same way, we should let people have their handguns and hunting guns if they use them responsibly (i.e., keep them away from kids who are increasingly using legal weapons to harm and kill fellow kids), but not assault-type weapons which are meant to kill humans quickly and in large numbers. Let’s decrease the carnage NOW by keeping these big-volume killers in the military (hey, that’s almost like the term militia in the 2nd Amendment!).

I don’t totally disagree with the sentiments for banning “assault weapons”, I disagree with the semantics and practicality of doing so. I think we had a law limiting the size of the magazine (popularly called a clip) they could sell but it was allowed to expire. You could still buy a bigger clip if you knew where to look or make one yourself.

About The Author

Andrew Heller has been an enduringly popular newspaper columnist in Michigan for a long, long, long time. He wrote his first column for the Escanaba Daily Press way back in 1979. It was about his … Continue Reading

Come Heller High Water II is the smash hit follow-up to Come Heller High Water I. It includes everything from Andy's takes on modern life to conversations with his back home pal Moon Dimple, and much, much more.

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